LOST IN THE WILDS OF BUDERIM....

The subject line is a slight exaggeration, because we didn't get lost.  But who knew about wild Buderim?   My daughter did and she took me for a walk last week in that extremely populous suburb.  I had heard of the Buderim Forest but never visited before. 

I found it to be very therapeutic and am pleased to have found such a lovely walk which is not too difficult even when you leave the board-walk.

There are steps that are easy to climb... 

although you do need to be careful in some places and when crossing the steam...

The board-walk meanders along and over a gurgling stream before finishing and then you walk up to several waterfalls using the well beaten track. 

There are other board-walks leading elsewhere from the falls.

You can get right down under the falls. Wonder what that's like after heavy rains?

 

Lots of tiny birds were seen high in the canopy but unfortunately, they were too quick and too small in the fading light to get any snaps.  I did manage to take a blurry shot of a green cat bird before he flew off.  We didn't see any snakes or lizards although my daughter has seen lizards there before.  In fact, aside from the birds, it was almost devoid of wildlife that day.

 
Plenty of interesting berries and fruit though.  The blue is a blue quandong and they were everywhere (don't you love that colour?). The red, is one of the lilly pilly varieties but I'm not sure what the tiny yellow fruit is. Perhaps a fig of some sort?

All in all, it's a lovely walk with plenty to interest most people and I will do it again, perhaps when it's a little cooler.

As a bonus, we were treated to a delightful sunset on our way home.

ELDERLY WOMAN SURVIVES MOUNTAIN CLIMB BUT SCARED HALF TO DEATH BY DINOSAUR....

 That's what I reckon the newspaper headline might read anyway, had I slipped on the way down Mt Coolum today. Almost made it to the top, but the wind was too blustery and the knees were not cooperating. Note to self: "your knees are older than you are apparently and can no longer cope with extended climbing."

 From almost the top, I took these snaps of the dinosaur wandering around the Palmer Coolum Resort despite the wind blowing me around and increasing camera shake.  I was worried I would slip but stood my ground.

 This is the coast up to Maroochydore way on a particularly overcast morning.  It was just starting to spit as we reached the car. Note the rock formation on the right and read about it below.

***o0o***

For one blinding second there was sun! You can see the beach lit up with sunshine to the north around Marcus Beach. Photo kindly taken by Kara who was escorting her poor old Mum.  Halfway up, I decided I wasn't going any further so gave the camera to her so she could take a shot of the dinosaur for me.  I bravely struggled on though, and met up with her just shy of the top.  She didn't go all the way herself due to the wind, so I figure I did quite well really, particularly as I've denied the local rag a lurid headline.

No doubt, due to the large numbers of people climbing Mt Coolum on any given day (or those very fit buggers who RUN up and down), the only wildlife I saw was the dinosaur.  No birds or even lizards so I contented myself with some tree bark; some had nature's graffiti or were brilliantly coloured or just interesting. It's a great walk though to test yourself, there were plenty of children going up as well as elderly and unfit people (not just me thank you very much).  

DAM, IT WAS GOOD...

 Recently, I stopped by Ewen Maddock Dam to visit the bush track to the dam near Landsborough.  It was very peaceful but we hadn't had much rain at the time and most of the area was very dry with water holes dried up, although the dam itself still had plenty of water.  Since then, it's rained a fair bit so I might revisit shortly to see if there's much difference.   I was gob-smacked by the beautiful young banksia I found (above) mainly because most of the banksia there was those horrible "bad banksia men" type of plant; all dried and ugly. I've always loathed them thanks to May Gibbs and her otherwise delightful stories. But this one, growing out of its crown of furry, red fingers, was startling in such company.  I'm using it as my facebook profile pic at the moment and it has caused some rude comments about its shape.  Honestly, some people can see lewdness all around them.

 I was felt a bit trepidatious as I set forth alone; not because of any worry about lurking muggers, but snakes! The walkway is quite wide and parts of it are boarded. When I heard a loud rustle in the long grass I braced myself to run but then saw that it was no snake but this goanna.  I had apparently interrupted his sunbaking on the path and he had seen/heard me before I saw him and beat it into the scrub.  

Then he climbed a tree and played hide and seek with me so that I couldn't get a good snap, keeping the trunk of the tree between me and him as I moved. 

The next reptile I saw was not threatening at all and very cute; he bravely stood his ground while I sneaked closer to get a better shot.

There were tiny little birds everywhere, flitting around, singing sweetly; but very difficult to see amongst the foliage.  I managed a few shots of these two birds but, typically, only managed the backs of their heads in focus.  

I include the out-of-focus shot just to show his face. [edit: 7 years on, I can tell you this one is an eastern yellow robin and the black and white bird below is a leaden flycatcher]

This guy kept the trees between me and him at all times as well.

The dam is quite shallow and marshy with all the reeds, weeds and water lillies there; perhaps next time I'll take some galoshes. 

 I was puzzled by the bands of "something" I could see 
on the dam until I cropped the large photo I had, to 
discover they were groups of tiny white water lillies.

 Perhaps I should have kept this fellow for my "What's This?" posts because I have no idea what it is. I thought it was a type of grass tree but can't find anything that looks like this.  The stem is about 6ft high and grows from a grassy knob like lomandra. 

Another candidate for the "What's This?" is this lovely yellow reed-like plant which was growing on the edge of the dam.

 Lots of dragon flies around, of course, and this fellow was very cooperative, sitting still for a few minutes, although he was quite a long away from me.

And finally, what could be more Australian than some scribbly gum? Although, it may not actually be scribbly gum.  Just a eucalyptus that an insect or slug is trying to consume.  Not sure that they're all the same as mentioned here. I have posted about the red triangle slug which also makes scribbly trails on trees.

WOOF! WOOF!

No, sorry, that should be Bark! Bark! The bark on the left I believe is from a leopard tree and on the right, a pine tree (maybe cyprus pine). They're quite interesting aren't they?